h o n g k o n g tat l e r. a u g u s t 2 0 1 9 91
Novel Investment Partners, director of Novelpark Investments, and
CEO of the Bai Xian Asia Institute, an organisation founded by her
father, Ronald Chao, to foster cross-cultural educational exchange
among students in East Asia—grew up in Hong Kong in the early
1970s, a decade before the city’s mall boom deposited a spate of
luxury shopping and entertainment monoliths across the skyline.
“I think my passion and my interest in environmentalism comes
from the fact that things have really changed,” Ronna tells Tatler.
“We didn’t grow up with it. When we were little, we didn’t have
so much—and we didn’t throw things away. Conservation—and
recycling—wasn’t a conscious thing, because it happened naturally.
“If you think about it, there were no malls. We went to Ocean
Terminal, which is now Harbour City, and there were individual
shops. What we’d shop for were books, and we were allowed to get
one—it was never like, ‘You can buy 10 books.’ And I remember a
major treat; when we were in our early teens my dad took us to a
record shop and maybe once every two months we would each be
able to choose a vinyl. Things were very precious and you would
reuse them, reuse them, reuse them.”
These core values of respect and thoughtful consumption have
been passed down in the family through generations. “I remember
my grandmother unravelling sweaters to re-knit because the yarn
was perfectly fine, it’s just that it was too small for me because I’d
grown,” says Ronna. “So she would unravel, add more and knit it
into another style. I still have garments I can show you that my
grandmother knitted. I wore them; my kids wore them.”
These values of respect and thoughtful consumption have alsoTHREADS OF
OPPORTUNITY
Ronna wears a
sweater by Theory